Antecedent

by Susan Stumpf

Wu followed Bo out with the dogs, and I was glad, I didn't want to answer any questions he might have. I found my sweater and skirt on the stairs ripped apart. Yep, he was mad.

  I didn't figure Bo would come by that night, but he didn't come by any night for the next couple weeks. I went about my usual schedule of running my usual errands. I'd been to the shop almost every day but only during daylight hours. I purposely picked up Bo's dry cleaning and brought it by later than usual one evening but his bedroom door was shut. Either he was out and I'd missed him, or he was still sleeping. Was he still mad at me? It was a really long time to be mad for a guy who claimed never to get mad.

  That was it, I was going to confront him, so I sat right there on his couch and waited for him. I waited for hours. He finally came in around eleven. I stood up and got right to it.

  "Alright, why are you still mad at me? For a guy that claims never to get mad, you've been mad an awfully long time."

  "I didn't say I never get mad, I said I don't get furious. If I'd have been furious, you'd be dead," he said matter-of- factly.

  "So why are you still mad?" I asked.

  "I'm not mad," he answered.

  This was getting frustrating.

  "Then what is your problem, you haven't come by or talked to me in weeks!"

  "I'm just not sure I can trust you. You lied to me."

  Ok, he was making me mad.

  "Alright, first off, it wasn't a full on lie, I just under exaggerated. I had no idea alcohol had that kind of an effect on you! I said I only had a couple, but I really had five or six. It's not like I was claiming I hadn't been drinking at all. I only said I had less so you wouldn't feel like you were taking advantage of me. Had I known that would happen, I would've told you exactly how much I had to drink!" I yelled.

  "Em, we've had this conversation. I've told you exactly what alcohol in a blood stream does to me!"

  "What! When?"

  "The night of the Halloween party, remember?"

  "Seriously, Bo, I was so beyond drunk that night, I don't know what all I did, let alone a conversation that we had!"

  "I could have killed you, do you understand that?"

  "?and that's my fault? Hey, you knew I'd been drinking, but that was a chance you seemed to be willing to take!"

  "Why are you yelling at me?" he asked. "Are you mad at me for being mad at you?"

  "No, well?yes. I don't know."

  "That's a little irrational isn't it?" he said.

  "Oh and I suppose you're Mr. Sensible for not speaking to me for two and a half weeks because of something I had no idea would happen!"

  He didn't say anything. Arh, sometimes he was so annoying! Bo was always right, no matter what. What he thought and what he felt was always the correct thing and everyone else was just wrong. He didn't say anything else for another minute or two, so I just huffed and stomped up the steps. He was such a jerk sometimes. How could a man almost three hundred years old still act like a child?

  I was so aggravated I went home and did something I hadn't done in a long time. I worked out. Brian had gotten me a kickboxing DVD a few years ago that was still in the plastic. I figured it would be a good way to work out my aggression and maybe if I kept it up I wouldn't have to go up a jeans size. It was a tough workout but I was able to keep up. I definitely worked up a sweat. Bacon sure didn't know what to think of me jumping and kicking around. He just looked out the window and barked at the dog across the street he'd formed a love/ hate relationship with.

  I went upstairs to shower. When I got out, I used my towel to dry off the mirror so I could see to untangle my wet mess of hair. I liked having waist-length hair, but it was a beast to untangle sometimes. As I looked in the mirror the reflection of Bo standing in the doorway nearly scared me to death. I grabbed my towel off the sink and covered myself with it.

  "What are you doing in here?" I screamed at him.

  "I thought about what you said, and I forgive you."

  "Yeah that's great," I said sarcastically, "Could it not have waited till I was dressed?"

  "Why are you covering up? I think I pretty much familiarized myself with every inch of your body last time I was here, don't you think?" he said with a smirk as he approached me.

  "So! Do you think that means you can look at me naked whenever you want now?"

  He grabbed the bottom of the towel with vampire speed and yanked it to the ground.

  "Yes," he said with a mischievous grin that showed the tips of his fangs.

  "Well, it doesn't," I said with my hands on my hips. "?and I think you should leave."

  "Really?" he asked with an even bigger smile on his face.

  I'm not sure how he even picked me up, but I was across the room and on the bed in half a second. Then Bo started in on those centuries old skills of his. It should be illegal for a man to be this good. A few minutes later he stopped and stood up.

  "What are you doing? What's wrong?" I asked.

  "Nothing," he said looking arrogant and smug. "You told me you thought I should leave."

  "Well, not now!" I protested.

  "Hmm," he said seeming very blas?. Then he turned around and walked out of the room. I laid there with my mouth open in shock. Did he seriously just do that?? Was he not going to come back and finish? Seriously?

  I grabbed my bathrobe and went downstairs thinking Bo would be sitting on the couch with that stupid smug look on his face, but no he really left. "Ah, seriously?" I said out loud to myself.

  I grabbed my phone and texted him

  - 12:35 What the hell was that?

  - 12:37 You said you thought I should leave.

  - 12:38 If you'd like for me to continue what I started I'll be at my apartment?waiting.

  - 12:40 Wait all you want I'm not coming!

  I paced the floor, what the hell was that? What kind of game was he playing? Was he just trying to see how desperate I was? I was not going to drive over there! If he wanted me, he could've stayed. Why run off to see if I'd follow? I was furious!

  It was a good thirty minutes before I calmed down enough to even try to sleep. I laid there in my bed tossing and turning. I replayed the whole situation in my head over and over. I analyzed and over analyzed it. Then a thought hit me, what if he wasn't being insolent? What if he wasn't playing a game? What if he was scared, scared to stay at my house? It had to have been pretty traumatic to wake up and see the light of dawn. Maybe he was afraid it might happen again. Maybe he was afraid of being stranded here again and this little game was a way of playing it off like men do. They never want to seem vulnerable or afraid of anything. My anger melted away and sympathy took its place. Right on cue, my phone buzzed on the nightstand:

  -1:45 I'm waiting?.

  -1:48 Alright, alright I'm coming.

  -1:49 Good girl :)

 

  It was only a thirty-minute drive to Bo's, but it only took about twenty minutes at this hour. When I got downstairs Bo was laying on the bed naked.

  "I was about to give up on you," he said.

  "Ummmmm??" I said, pointing at what I thought was physically impossible for him without drinking blood.

  "I took something," he said. "I thought you'd approve, I know you're not real fond of the biting," he said smiling.

  Just then he reminded me of a little boy who was all proud of something he'd built and was showing it off. I chuckled and had to push the thought from my head.

  "What's funny?" he asked.

  "What would you have done if I didn't come over?"

  "Find a plan B I guess." He shrugged.

  What did that mean? Did he mean he would find somebody else to have sex with? That thought really bothered me. I had no claim over Bo, he wasn't my boyfriend. He didn't belong to me, but the thought of him being with someone else drove me nuts. Suddenly I was jealous of everybody he'd ever slept with. Over the course of a couple hundred years, I'm sure it was a lot, even though almost all of them he would have killed right after to preserve his secret. I
didn't want to give Bo the opportunity to need a plan B. It was selfish of me but being with him was so good, I wanted to have it all to myself. I didn't want anyone else to have him but me.

  Bo did indeed continue where he'd left off at my place, but his exploits didn't match my mood. Bo was passionate yet cold. We were having sex, but I was in a mood to make love. Was Bo capable of making love? He did everything right, but it was too rough and impersonal for what my heart needed right now. I was looking forward to sleeping beside of him when we were done. As luck would have it, the first time around, I would've liked to go all night and it only lasted ten minutes. This time, I wished it would only last ten minutes and it lasted much longer. It's not that I didn't enjoy myself, oh I did?repeatedly in fact. I just needed to be held.

  About an hour later- I'd lost track of time and space completely by that point- Bo got up.

  "Where are you going?" I asked. This was the part I'd been waiting for.

  "I'm hungry," he said. "I'm going out."

  Bo was about to break one of the cardinal rules of sex for guys. You can't just get up as soon as you're done and leave! You just can't do that!

  "Can't you stay for a little while?" I asked.

  "Nah, it'll be daylight in a few hours, you understand. Go on home and get some rest, you've got a busy day tomorrow."

  He leaned down and kissed me on the top of the head and was gone.